L'Homme du Train

Milan (Hallyday) alights in a provincial backwater. This town is so dead, there's nowhere a stranger can hole up for the night, so he grudgingly accepts the hospitality of a genial old duffer he meets in the street. Manesquier (Rochefort) still lives alone in the roomy mansion he once shared with his parents. A retired teacher, he is only too happy to have someone to talk to - even someone as taciturn as Milan, who keeps his cards close to his chest and a revolver in his valise. This sly, funny movie was constructed around Hallyday and Rochefort's contrasting screen personae, but it's more than just an odd couple set-up. As Milan cases the local bank and the ailing Manesquier prepares himself for surgery, each man gets a taste of a different life, the road not taken. Claude Klotz has furnished the scenario with some deft running gags, but the film never strays into farce. Less showy and more sympathetic than most of Leconte's work, it's a charming, melancholic divertissement.